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LSD
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===Notable individuals=== Some notable individuals have commented publicly on their experiences with LSD.<ref>{{cite web |title=Famous LSD users |url=http://www.thegooddrugsguide.com/articles/famous_users/lsd.htm |publisher=The Good Drugs Guide |access-date=2008-10-20 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007023344/http://www.thegooddrugsguide.com/articles/famous_users/lsd.htm |archive-date=October 7, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://popwiki.net |title=People on psychedelics |access-date=2012-11-01 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130421145334/http://popwiki.net/ |archive-date=April 21, 2013}}</ref> Some of these comments date from the era when it was legally available in the US and Europe for non-medical uses, and others pertain to [[psychiatric]] treatment in the 1950s and 1960s. Still others describe experiences with illegal LSD, obtained for philosophic, artistic, therapeutic, spiritual, or recreational purposes. * [[W. H. Auden]], the poet, said, "I myself have taken mescaline once and L.S.D. once. Aside from a slight schizophrenic dissociation of the I from the Not-I, including my body, nothing happened at all."<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Mason D | title = Review: Awe for Auden | journal = The Hudson Review | volume = 68 | issue = 3 | date = Autumn 2015 | pages = 492–500 | publisher = The Hudson Review, Inc. }}</ref> He also said, "LSD was a complete frost. … What it does seem to destroy is the power of communication. I have listened to tapes done by highly articulate people under LSD, for example, and they talk absolute drivel. They may have seen something interesting, but they certainly lose either the power or the wish to communicate."<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/auden/QandA_pt6.html | vauthors = Auden WH | title = W. H. Auden at Swathmore; An hour of questions and answers with Auden | date = 15 November 1971 | work = Exhibition notes from the W.H. Auden Collection | publisher = the Swarthmore College Library | access-date = February 23, 2021 | archive-date = June 11, 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210611212901/http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/auden/QandA_pt6.html | url-status = live }}</ref> He also said, "Nothing much happened but I did get the distinct impression that some birds were trying to communicate with me."<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.irishtimes.com/news/a-master-of-memorable-speech-1.1195982 | vauthors = MacMonagle N | title = A Master of Memorable speech | newspaper = The Irish Times | date = 17 February 2007 }}</ref> * [[James Cameron]], the Canadian filmmaker, has said he experimented with LSD during his college years.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-01-10 |title=The Impossible Reality of James Cameron |url=https://rollingstoneindia.com/james-cameron/ |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=Rolling Stone India |language=en-US}}</ref> * [[Daniel Ellsberg]], an American peace activist, says he has had several hundred experiences with psychedelics.<ref>{{Cite web| vauthors=Meyer A |date=2022-01-24 |title=Daniel Ellsberg Talks Psychedelics, Consciousness and World Peace |url=https://www.lucid.news/daniel-ellsberg-talks-psychedelics-consciousness-and-world-peace/|access-date=2022-01-29|website=Lucid News|language=en-US|archive-date=January 29, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220129143452/https://www.lucid.news/daniel-ellsberg-talks-psychedelics-consciousness-and-world-peace/|url-status=live}}</ref> * [[Richard Feynman]], a notable physicist at [[California Institute of Technology]], tried LSD during his professorship at Caltech. Feynman largely sidestepped the issue when dictating his anecdotes; he mentions it in passing in the "O Americano, Outra Vez" section.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Feynman RP |title=Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character | veditors = Leighton R |publisher=[[W. W. Norton]] |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-393-01921-6 |oclc=10925248|title-link=Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Gleick J |author-link=James Gleick |title=Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman |publisher=[[Pantheon Books]] |year=1992|isbn=978-0-679-40836-9 |oclc=243743850}}</ref> * [[Jerry Garcia]] stated in a July 3, 1989 interview for ''[[Relix Magazine]]'', in response to the question "Have your feelings about LSD changed over the years?," "They haven't changed much. My feelings about LSD are mixed. It's something that I both fear and that I love at the same time. I never take any psychedelic, have a psychedelic experience, without having that feeling of, "I don't know what's going to happen." In that sense, it's still fundamentally an enigma and a mystery."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.relix.com/features/2010/04/20/q-a-with-jerry-garcia-portrait-of-an-artist-as-a-tripper?3 |title=Q&A with Jerry Garcia: Portrait of an Artist as a Tripper |publisher=Relix Magazine |date=April 20, 2010 |access-date=2013-06-29 | vauthors = Alderson J |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100521033451/http://www.relix.com/features/2010/04/20/q-a-with-jerry-garcia-portrait-of-an-artist-as-a-tripper?3 |archive-date=May 21, 2010}}</ref> * [[Bill Gates]] implied in an interview with ''[[Playboy]]'' that he tried LSD during his youth.<ref>{{cite magazine |title= The Bill Gates Interview |magazine= Playboy |date= July 1994 |url= http://www.playboy.com/playground/view/50-years-of-the-playboy-interview-bill-gates |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140707190401/http://www.playboy.com/playground/view/50-years-of-the-playboy-interview-bill-gates |archive-date= July 7, 2014}}</ref> * [[Aldous Huxley]], author of ''[[Brave New World]]'', became a user of psychedelics after moving to [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]]. He was at the forefront of the counterculture's use of psychedelic drugs, which led to his 1954 work ''[[The Doors of Perception]]''. Dying from cancer, he asked his wife on 22 November 1963 to inject him with 100 μg of LSD. He died later that day.<ref name=OpenCulture>{{cite news |vauthors=Colman D |title=Aldous Huxley's LSD Death Trip |newspaper=Open Culture |date=October 2011 |url=http://www.openculture.com/2011/10/aldous_huxleys_lsd_death_trip.html |access-date=1 November 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111112140024/http://www.openculture.com/2011/10/aldous_huxleys_lsd_death_trip.html |archive-date=November 12, 2011}}</ref> * [[Steve Jobs]], co-founder and former CEO of [[Apple Inc.]], said, "Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life."<ref>{{Cite news | vauthors = Bosker B |title=The Steve Jobs Reading List: The Books And Artists That Made The Man |newspaper=Huffington Post |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/21/the-steve-jobs-reading-list-the-books_n_1024021.html |access-date=23 October 2011 |date=21 October 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111022123850/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/21/the-steve-jobs-reading-list-the-books_n_1024021.html |archive-date=October 22, 2011}}</ref> * [[Ernst Jünger]], German writer and philosopher, throughout his life had experimented with [[Psychoactive drug|drugs]] such as [[diethyl ether|ether]], [[cocaine]], and [[hashish]]; and later in life he used [[mescaline]] and LSD. These experiments were recorded comprehensively in ''[[Annäherungen]]'' (1970, ''Approaches''). The novel ''[[Besuch auf Godenholm]]'' (1952, ''Visit to Godenholm'') is clearly influenced by his early experiments with mescaline and LSD. He met with LSD inventor [[Albert Hofmann]] and they took LSD together several times. Hofmann's memoir ''LSD, My Problem Child'' describes some of these meetings.<ref>{{cite web|title=LSD, My Problem Child · Radiance from Ernst Junger|website=www.psychedelic-library.org |url=http://www.psychedelic-library.org/child7.htm |access-date=April 17, 2021|archive-date=May 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512173700/http://www.psychedelic-library.org/child7.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> * In a 2004 interview, [[Paul McCartney]] said that [[The Beatles]]' songs "[[Day Tripper]]" and "[[Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds]]" were inspired by LSD trips.<ref name=Sheff/>{{rp|182}} Nonetheless, [[John Lennon]] consistently stated over the course of many years that the fact that the initials of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" spelled out L-S-D was a coincidence (he stated that the title came from a picture drawn by his son [[Julian Lennon|Julian]]) and that the band members did not notice until after the song had been released, and Paul McCartney corroborated that story.<ref>{{cite web |date=1998-02-15 |title=Is 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' Code for LSD? |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds/ |access-date=2012-06-20 |website=Snopes.com |publisher= |archive-date=December 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211220152957/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[John Lennon]], [[George Harrison]], and [[Ringo Starr]] also used the drug, although McCartney cautioned that "it's easy to overestimate the influence of drugs on the Beatles' music."<ref name="weeklystandard">{{cite magazine |title=The Truth Behind "LSD" |vauthors=Matus V |date=June 2004 |magazine=The Weekly Standard |url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/the-truth-behind-lsd |access-date=November 3, 2019 |url-status=live |archive-date=March 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308185326/https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/the-truth-behind-lsd}}</ref> *[[Michel Foucault]] had an LSD experience with Simeon Wade in [[Death Valley]] and later wrote "it was the greatest experience of his life, and that it profoundly changed his life and his work."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.openculture.com/2017/09/when-michel-foucault-tripped-on-acid-in-death-valley-and-called-it-the-greatest-experience-of-my-life-1975.html|title=When Michel Foucault Tripped on Acid in Death Valley and Called It "The Greatest Experience of My Life"|date=September 1975|website=Open Culture|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-27|archive-date=March 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210315225234/https://openculture.com/2017/09/when-michel-foucault-tripped-on-acid-in-death-valley-and-called-it-the-greatest-experience-of-my-life-1975.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/blowing-the-philosophers-fuses-michel-foucaults-lsd-trip-in-the-valley-of-death/|title=Blowing The Philosopher's Fuses: Michel Foucault's LSD Trip in The Valley of Death|vauthors=Penner J|website=Los Angeles Review of Books|date=June 17, 2019 |language=en-US|access-date=11 April 2021|archive-date=April 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411165642/https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/blowing-the-philosophers-fuses-michel-foucaults-lsd-trip-in-the-valley-of-death/#_ftnref4|url-status=live}} Wade: "We fell silent to listen to Stockhausen's ''[[Gesang der Jünglinge|Songs of Youth]]''. Zabriskie Point was filled with the sound of a kindergarten playground overlaid with electric tonalities. ''Kontakte'' followed. [[Glissando]]s bounced off the stars, which glowed like incandescent pinballs. Foucault turned to Michael and said this is the first time he really understood what Stockhausen had achieved".</ref> According to Wade, as soon as he came back to Paris, Foucault scrapped the second History of Sexuality's manuscript, and totally rethought the whole project.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Foucault in California: [A True Story-–Wherein the Great French Philosopher Drops Acid in the Valley of Death]| vauthors=Wade S |publisher=Heyday Books |year=2019 |isbn=9781597144636}} In a letter to Wade, dated 16 September 1978, Foucault authorised the book's publication and added: "How could I not love you?"</ref> * [[Kary Mullis]] is reported to credit LSD with helping him develop [[Polymerase chain reaction|DNA amplification]] technology, for which he received the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] in 1993.<ref>{{Cite magazine| url=https://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/01/70015 |title=LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? |access-date=2008-03-11 |vauthors=Harrison A |date=2006-01-16 |magazine=Wired |quote=Like Herbert, many scientists and engineers also report heightened states of creativity while using LSD. During a press conference on Friday, Hofmann revealed that he was told by Nobel-prize-winning chemist Kary Mullis that LSD had helped him develop the polymerase chain reaction that helps amplify specific DNA sequences. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080505100508/http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/01/70015 |archive-date=May 5, 2008}}</ref> * [[Carlo Rovelli]], an Italian [[theoretical physicist]] and writer, has credited his use of LSD with sparking his interest in theoretical physics.<ref>{{Cite web|vauthors=Higgins C|date=2018-04-14|title='There is no such thing as past or future': physicist Carlo Rovelli on changing how we think about time |website=The Guardian |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/14/carlo-rovelli-exploding-commonsense-notions-order-of-time-interview |access-date=2022-02-06|archive-date=January 11, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220111094136/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/14/carlo-rovelli-exploding-commonsense-notions-order-of-time-interview|url-status=live}}</ref> * [[Oliver Sacks]], a [[neurologist]] famous for writing best-selling case histories about his patients' disorders and unusual experiences, talks about his own experiences with LSD and other perception altering chemicals, in his book, ''[[Hallucinations (book)|Hallucinations]]''.<ref>{{cite book |vauthors=Sacks O |date=2012 |title=Hallucinations |publisher=[[Vintage Books]] |page=106 |url=https://www.oliversacks.com/books-by-oliver-sacks/hallucinations/ |isbn=978-0-307-94743-7 |quote=On the West Coast in the early 1960s LSD and morning glory seeds were readily available, so I sampled those, too. |access-date=June 30, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-date=April 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421064209/https://www.oliversacks.com/books-by-oliver-sacks/hallucinations/}}</ref> * [[Alexander Shulgin]], American chemist, told Albert Hofmann that he preferred LSD to [[2C-B]]. * [[Matt Stone]] and [[Trey Parker]], creators of the TV series ''[[South Park]]'', claimed to have shown up at the [[72nd Academy Awards]], at which they were nominated for Best Original Song, under the influence of LSD.<ref>{{cite web | vauthors = Bose SD |title=When Trey Parker and Matt Stone went to the Oscars on LSD Swapnil Dhruv Bose |date=December 27, 2021 |website=FarOutMagazine.co.uk |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/when-trey-parker-and-matt-stone-went-to-the-oscars-on-lsd/ |access-date=January 20, 2022 |url-status=live |archive-date=January 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120001258/https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/when-trey-parker-and-matt-stone-went-to-the-oscars-on-lsd/}}</ref>
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